Human Commodity (15 page)

“What?
 
Oh, we hit the Ultra-ray Chamber a couple of times a week.”

“
Oh
,” Daria nodded.

“You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

“Nope, but you told Claree you think I’m stupid, and I didn’t like that.”

“You’re not stupid, AG.
 
Just a little ignorant about things we take for granted out here.”

“Thank you.”
 
Daria’s eyes filled yet again.
 
“What’s an Ultra-ray Chamber?”

“Something you need to earn.”
 
There’s going to be lots of things you’ll need to earn.
 
Damon was beginning to feel this would work out.

“How?
 
Will it make my skin brown, too?”

“Yes, it will make your skin brown.
 
How about you wash my back?”

Daria studied the broad shoulders, and Damon expected her to balk.
 
“You’re awfully big.
 
That doesn’t seem fair.
 
Can I have a bath, too?”

What, does she expect to stand outside the shower?
 
“Okay.”

Daria stood and smiled.
 
It put her on eye level with the sitting man.
 
“You’re not too bad for a bastard.”

Damon blinked.
 
“Master.”

“You’re not too bad for a bastard, Master.”

This
would not work.
 
“AG, you can’t call men bastards any more.
 
They’re all Master.”

“They’ve been bastards all my life… Master.”

“Every time you call them that, I’m going to take away something you earn.”

Daria’s mouth dropped open.
 
In her limited world with even more limited pleasures, this was a crushing threat.
 
“Maybe you
are
too bad,” she whispered.

“No, maybe I’m smarter than you think I am.
 
I bet you remember quickly not to say it any more,” Damon lifted his brow.

“I bet you’re right,” Daria agreed.

At some point the drugs began to drift out of her.
 
Damon could see her eyes clearing, but she was showing none of the signs of melt down.
 
He had no idea if she calmed herself after being around him… shit, he was supposed to scare the crap out of new trainees… or if Clarett’s talk had done it.
 
“Come.”

Daria followed him across the living room, glancing at the cage again.
 
Her eyes really widened at the weird stuff in his bedroom, and Damon was at the bathroom door before he discovered she was no longer following.
 
She was standing by the bed, and touching a ring embedded into a post.
 
“What’s this for?
 
Do you have a canopy?”
 
It was an awfully big curtain ring.

“Do you want me to show you?”

“Yes… Master.”

“Give me your hands.”

Daria held them out, and her eyes widened when he hooked the wrist cuffs together.
 
He lifted them, and hooked them onto the ring.
 
She hung with her feet barely on the ground… a perfect height to stretch her leanness.

“What now, Master?”

“Now, I can do whatever I want.”

“Oh, I get it.
 
So I don’t wander around while you’re busy working.”

“Not quite.
 
It’s so I can do whatever I want… to you.”

Damon walked up behind her and ran his hands down her sides.
 
One roamed over her bottom, and she reflexively clenched.
 
“You’re not going to use your evil spear, are you?’ she quivered.

“Not yet,” he chuckled softly.
 
He could feel her beginning to tremble.
 
“Calm down.
 
Calm down, AG.”

His hands stroked over her breasts down to her belly.
 
He traveled back to her breasts and cupped them, massaging them while she quivered.
 
“Calm down.
 
You like this, remember?”

“It makes me warm… but I’m not cold now.”

“You ready to wash my back?”

“I get a bath, right?”

“Master.”

“Master,” she repeated.

He released her wrists and she looked up at the rings.
 
“They’re not for a canopy.”

“No.”

Daria followed him into the bathroom and she glanced back at the bedroom.
 
“Do I get to earn to use the exercise equipment?
 
You’ll have to show me how.
 
Our stuff wasn’t like that.”

Damon laughed.
 
“Yes, I’ll show you how to use the ‘exercise’ equipment.”

“AG… AG!
 
Dammit, Daria, stand still!”
 
Damon discovered she was not kidding about the bath.
 
The girl had never seen a shower before.
 
She was hopping up and down catching water on her tongue like snow or raindrops, and slicing her hand through the wall jets trying to get the water to aim at his face.
 
Damon finally grabbed the back of her collar and smacked his hand down on her wet bottom.

She stopped immediately, and dropped onto the marble bench.
 
Her eyes began to glaze into meltdown…
oh, fuck… oh, fuck me
.
 
“Daria,” he gripped her chin.
 
“Daria, you stop that.”
 
Damon reached out and cupped a breast, running a finger over a dripping nipple.
 
“Daria, calm down.”
 
Damon forced his voice to be steady and low.
 
“Calm down, now.”

Her eyes cleared a bit and spilled tears.
 
“You hit me,” she said in astonishment.
 
“OTR said the bastards hit.
 
I didn’t believe her.
 
I thought she was being crazy again.”

“There’s different ways of hitting.
 
Your mother meant in anger, and we don’t do that.”

“You hit me.”

“I spanked you.
 
That’s what you do to someone who’s misbehaving.
 
You weren’t listening to me, and Clarett told you to listen to me.”
 
Damon was relieved to see she was almost back to ‘Daria normal’.

“The members just locked us into the closet for a few days.”

And that’s preferable to a swat on the butt?

“You’re mad at me.”

“No.
 
You just need to calm down.
 
If you’re going to get all crazy every time you see something new, I’m going to have to keep you secluded.”

“But I want to see.”

“Then you have to calm down, or I’ll calm you down with a swat on your bottom.
 
I’m not locking you into a closet.”

“Are those SHCI rules?

“Yes, those are SHCI rules.
 
We don’t lock girls into closets.
 
Cages sometimes.”
 
Damon smiled.

“Why would you do that?”

“So when you come out, you want to please us.”

“Can you give me a copy of the rules so that you don’t have to swat me too much?”

“I’ll tell you the rules.
 
Now, you’re supposed to be washing my back.”

Daria stood and turned.
 
“I have your handprint on my bottom.”

Damon covered the print with his hand and squeezed the round globe.
 
“I’ll be damned.”

They finished the shower… finally… and Damon led her over to a white cubicle.
 
He handed her a stretchy net cap.
 
“Stuff your hair up in there.”

“Why?”

Damon rolled his eyes.
 
“Because I told you to.
 
Stop asking so many questions.”
 
Daria stood with her hair balled up, and she looked at the three white walls.
 
“Close your eyes, and don’t open them until I tell you to.”

“Okay.”

“Put your fingers out so that they touch the wall.
 
Now, the floor is going to turn slowly, and you can follow the wall with your fingers.
 
Do not
open your eyes.”

“Is it going to hurt?

“No, it will feel a little warm.”

“Like the metal patches,” she quivered.

“No, Daria.
 
That was to burn off hair follicles.
 
This will feel more like weeding in August.”

“Okay.
 
I’m ready.”

The floor turned and it made her feel a little dizzy, but it was not too hot.
 
He finally said, “Open your eyes.”
 
Her green eyes looked up at him in expectation.
 
He pulled down a wrist cuff and it was slightly paler underneath.
 
“You have to go slowly so you don’t burn, but the brown gets darker each time.”

“Wow.
 
Can you make me as brown as you?”

“Oh god, Daria.”
 
Damon was not sure he was up to this… even if her green eyes were so full of hope.
 
“Have you ever been in a drying chamber?”

“Uhn, uhn.”

“Oh, boy.”
 
Damon was already anticipating her reaction to this one.
 
“Take your hair down and hold onto me.”

Daria pulled her hair out of the cap.
 
“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you getting all crazy again, and making me swat you.”

Daria put her arms around his waist, and backed away staring at his cock.
 
“Are you going to use your evil…”

“Shut up, Daria.
 
Hold onto me.”
 
Damon hit a switch, and she jumped up and down squealing in delight, with her arms wrapped around his waist and her belly and pelvis rubbing his erection.
 
She stared up at him smiling while their drying hair swirled around them.
 
“I’m going to turn you to get the front.
 
Stop jumping or your head is going to hit my jaw.”
 
He wrapped his arms under her breasts just in case.

“What do I have to do?”
 
She looked up at him.
 
“To earn the drying chamber.
 
You didn’t make me earn it.”

Damon smiled.
 
“Hold up my cock so my balls will dry.”

“You won’t spear me, will you?”

“Not yet.”

The wind swirled her hair and her hand reached out.
 
Her eyes never left his cock, and she drew back her hand when her fingertips connected, as if she had been burned.
 
She looked up at him nervously, and re-focused on his shaft.
 
Finally, she placed three fingers under the smooth round ball tip, and lifted it until it touched the line of hair on his belly.
 
Her other hand lifted his sack and he looked down in surprise.
 
She began pinching and pulling the skin underneath, and Damon began to think he might have to use his evil spear soon.

She bent over, and looked up at him, slightly concerned.
 
“You’re leaking.
 
Is that okay?
 
You won’t dry if you keep doing it.”

“I’m fine,” he chuckled.
 
He smoothed her hair out of her face.
 
“Daria?
 
Lizzie and Annie… they seem to know a little more than you about certain things.”

“The bastards,” Daria affirmed.
 
“Mom said early on that she wouldn’t let them put Doc’s weapon in me, so I didn’t need to go down to the clinic for the lessons.”

“What lessons?”

“About how the bastards work.
 
Mom said I’d learn when I got here.
 
Annie and Lizzie just said it was gross, and they wouldn’t talk about it because Doc told them not to.”

What kind of mother would sell her daughter as a sex slave, and give her absolutely no idea what she was facing
?
 
“But you saw the men in the basement.”

“Yeah, but they all had little cages on their privates.
 
I mean, except the one time I saw the nice bastard with the hole in his spear.
 
He didn’t look all stiff like you do, though.”

“You are a blank little canvas, Daria.”

She thought for a moment and scowled at him.
 
“Are you saying that I’m stupid again?”

“No, Daria.
 
It’s just more new stuff for you to learn.”

Damon handed her a hairbrush and a band to put it into a tail.
 
At least he did not have to explain the teeth cleaning liquid, but she giggled anyway as it scrubbed her teeth and gums.

When they left the bathroom, the phone rang and Daria went in search of her blanket.
 
Damon came into the living room, and she was curled on the sofa, asleep.
 
He sat down and put her head in his lap, and she stretched once and balled her fist onto his thigh.
 
A few minutes later the door opened, and Terry and Rodrigo took chairs across from him.

“I’d make fun of the way you’re training her, but it’s going the same with us.
 
They don’t really balk as long as things are explained.
 
The only frustration is how little they know,” Terry said.

“You okay?”

“The shot hurt like a bitch, but both of us are clean.
 
Hell, after talking to her for a while, she doesn’t have a mean thought going through her.
 
They were raised to be used by the organization.”

“Have you tried the shower yet?” Rodrigo smiled.

Damon smiled.
 
“Have you spanked yet?”

“Total shock.
 
She even lectured me about whipping her.
 
At the time she was gagged and I just thought she was a little more reactive than regular trainees.”